The last stage of the Tour of the Alps took the riders to Lake Garda today. Once again, the course was quite hilly, and the peloton had to cover 121 km to reach the line in Riva del Garda. It was also the last chance for BORA – hansgrohe to grab a stage win and therefore, Felix Großschartner and Matteo Fabbro were on the attack again. But as Matteo was just under four minutes down in GC, the bunch once again didn’t allow the group to gain more than three minutes advantage. As a result, eight riders from the original 16 made a move with 45 km remaining and Felix was also part of that new leading group. On the last climb Großschartner went all in to drop all of his former breakaway companions. With an impressive performance Felix extended his lead gradually to take a solo victory in Riva del Garda.
Results
01 F. Großschartner 3:03:38
02 N. Roche +0:34
03 A. De Marchi +0:34
…
10 M. Fabbro +0:40
From the Finish Line
“To win is always great, to win close to Austria is even better. After stage two I said to myself just try your best day by day, and that’s what I did. It didn’t work out two times but I stayed positive and the reward came with the win today. We planned again to go into the break and that worked out well. On the last climb I had the best legs and just went for it. To win from such a strong field two weeks ahead of the Giro is special and a great boost in confidence.” – Felix Großschartner
“We really deserve this one after all the hard efforts the last three days. After being in the break already for two days, to be up there again today and show that strength in the end is astonishing – Chapeau to Felix. We wanted to ride offensive today again and knew we cannot wait for the finale. Therefore, we wanted to go in the break with Felix. That Matteo was also up there was good, but we said in the morning he should just follow if the group is big. Both did a great job and our tactics played out well until the final. Then Felix simply had the legs, he dropped the others almost effortless, it was really impressive to watch. With this victory we also can be happy with this week. It started not the way we wanted, but to see the whole team presenting themselves like they did the last three days, was great promotion for our sport and for BORA – hansgrohe.” – Christian Pömer, Sports Director
